On the following morning I proceeded to examine the place, accompanied
by Lieutenant Ross in a second boat, and, to our great joy, found it a
considerable bay, with one part affording excellent landlocked anchorage
and, what was equally fortunate, sufficiently clear of ice to allow the
ship to enter. Having sounded the entrance and determined on the
anchorage, we returned to the ship to bring her in; and I cannot
describe the satisfaction which the information of our success
communicated to every individual on board. The main object of our
enterprise now appeared almost within our grasp, and everybody seemed
anxious to make up, by renewed exertions, for the time we had
unavoidably lost. The ship was towed and warped in with the greatest
alacrity, and at 1.40 A.M. on June 20th, we dropped the anchor in Hecla
Cove, in thirteen fathoms, on a bottom of very tenacious blue clay, and
made some hawsers fast to the land-ice, which still filled all the upper
part of the bay. After resting a few hours, we sawed a canal a quarter
of a mile in length, through which the ship was removed into a better
situation, a bower-cable taken on shore and secured to the rocks, and an
anchor, with the chain-cable, laid out the other way.
Pages:
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328